Termination and Settlement Agreements for Employers
We protect employers during employee terminations
At Longmores, our employment lawyers are highly experienced in advising employers on how to manage the exit of employees effectively. We can help to make this process as smooth and stress-free as possible, while keeping you legally protected throughout. This helps to ensure you do not leave your organisation open to an employment claim, which could be costly both financially and to your reputation.
Whilst formal termination processes do exist, it may be preferable to achieve an amicable departure if possible and discuss an exit package as an alternative as this will tend to reduce management distraction, time commitment and cost.
Our advice will be clear and concise so that you can make an informed decision as to how to maximise the commercial advantage to your business of reaching a settlement agreement. Well-managed settlement negotiations can serve to defuse the most difficult issues swiftly and effectively, reducing organisational risk, cost and loss of management time.
Where the employee is exiting the business, we can advise on issues such as confidentiality, non-disclosure and non-compete clauses to be covered by the settlement agreement. Where there is a desire to maintain an ongoing relationship by way of a consultancy arrangement for example, we can help you to build this into the settlement negotiations.
Clear, expert advice on employee terminations and settlement agreements
Our specialist team of employment lawyers have considerable experience in helping business clients with issues including:
- Drafting disciplinary rules and procedures
- Support for carrying out disciplinary processes
- Performance management procedures
- Employee terminations
- Redundancy procedures
- Settlement agreements
- Settlement Agreement Packs for your business
Work with industry-leading employment lawyers
Our employment lawyers consistently appear in the directories of leading practitioners and are ranked by the leading client guide, The Legal 500. This provides strong assurance that we offer an exceptional service.
The team is led by Joint Senior Partner Richard Gvero, who is closely supported by Senior Solicitor Miranda Mulligan. Both Richard and Miranda are individually recommended by The Legal 500.
Miranda and Richard are members of the Employment Lawyers Association (ELA), further emphasising their specialist expertise. Richard and Miranda are also accredited mediators.
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- Richard Gvero
- Joint Senior Partner, Head of Commercial and Head of Employment
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- Miranda Mulligan
- Senior Solicitor specialising in Employment law
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Speak to our employment experts today
To discuss an employee termination and/or settlement agreement with our commercially astute employment lawyers, please get in touch.
Our employee management and termination services
Drafting disciplinary rules and procedures
Having clear disciplinary rules and procedures in place can make it easier to manage any issues that do arise with an employee’s conduct. They can also help to give strong recourse if an employee brings a claim in relation to their treatment by showing you had appropriate processes.
Our employment lawyers can review any existing disciplinary rules and processes you have and advise on any refinements that may be required. We can also create these processes from scratch where required, giving a strong framework for dealing with disciplinary issues.
Support for carrying out disciplinary processes
Where there is an issue with an employee’s conduct, employers and managers are often wary about making a wrong move and leaving themselves open to employment claims, such as for discrimination or for constructive dismissal if the employee quits.
Our employment lawyers can provide early legal advice on your situation and any disciplinary action you are considering ensuring you do not leave your business open to a claim.
Performance management procedures
If an employee is persistently underperforming, it is important to be able to address this in a way that does not leave you open to a potential employment claim. Having a clear performance management framework in place can help to avoid accusations that an employee has been treated unfairly.
We can help to create performance management processes that are appropriate for your organisation’s needs, as well as advise on their application should the need arise.
Employee terminations
Employees should be one of an organisation’s biggest assets, but where there are issues with an employee or the needs to the organisation have changed, it may sometimes be necessary to let people go.
Common reasons for termination include:
- Persistent underperformance
- Poor attitude or behaviour
- Restructuring of the business
- Redundancy
It is absolutely essential to follow the right process before taking the decision to dismiss as you will need to be able to show that both the reason for the termination and the process followed were fair if the employee should attempt to bring an employment claim.
Our employment lawyers will be happy to advise you on termination procedures and on individual employee terminations, making sure you are able to manage these issues effectively without leaving your organisation open to an employment claim.
Redundancy procedures
Redundancy is a complex issue and one that must be carefully managed. You need to make sure that there can be no question that the redundancy process has been fairly carried out, especially when it comes to any decisions about which employees are selected for redundancy.
Our expert redundancy solicitors can guide you through the redundancy process, with expertise in both individual and mass redundancies. We can also advise on the use of settlement agreements for redundancy to protect your organisation against the risk of employment claims.
Settlement agreements
Settlement agreements can be a very useful tool for employers who wish to avoid the potential for an employment claim or who want to quickly and privately resolve an issue that an employee or former employee has raised.
A settlement agreement involves the employee agreeing not to bring employment-related claims usually in exchange for a one-off payment. This can be a very effective way to draw a line under a complaint or potential complaint and to protect an employer.
Our team of experienced, specialist employment lawyers can advise you on the risks of opening settlement discussions based on an understanding of the background and the likely response of the employee.
We can assist with negotiating and drafting the terms of a settlement agreement, ensuring that it provides the necessary protection for your organisation. We can also advise on related issues such as confidentiality provisions and post-termination restrictions.
Settlement Agreement Pack for your business
Our comprehensive Settlement Agreement Pack provides you with the necessary documentation to do this properly and protect your business.
Contents of the Settlement Agreement Pack
- Instructions for use
- Template covering letter to employee enclosing settlement agreement
- Template Settlement Agreement
Price: £500 plus VAT
Find out more about our Settlement Agreement Packs, as well as other the other Employment Law Packs we offer here.
Our fees
When dealing with potentially contentious issues like employee terminations, good employment law advice is a smart investment. It can save your organisation a lot of time and money in the long run by protecting you against the risk of problems, particularly employment claims.
That said, cost is always a key consideration, so we work hard to keep our fees to a minimum while ensuring we are able to provide the very best employment advice and service for our clients.
We believe in complete transparency about our fees, so will be happy to talk you through our charges and provide a realistic estimate of costs at the outset. For some of our services, we are able to offer fixed fees or capped fee deals where appropriate, giving you certainty over the costs involved in working with our employment lawyers.
To find out more about our fees for advice relating to performance management, termination and settlement, and to request a cost estimate, please get in touch.
Speak to our employment experts
To discuss an employee termination and/or settlement agreement with our commercially astute employment lawyers, please get in touch.